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First year with a hybrid


danowat
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When I brought my Pruis last year, it was a tentative dip in the water of hybrid / electric vehicles, but after a year, I am very glad I did.

Over the year I have done 13000 miles, including a 1500 mile trip across Europe, and it's been utterly faultless, the average mpg has been 58mpg over the entire 13000, best tank mpg was 67.2, worst was 54.

Apart from a set of Wiper Blades, an MOT (sailed through) and a service, it's cost nothing else (save insurance) for a years motoring, I think the biggest thing I like (next to the economy) is the way it drives, it's just so unflustered and refined (as long as you don't push it too far into the PWR zone!)

Lets hope this year is as flawless as the last.

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I know exactly what you mean.  I bought my first Prius (Gen 1) in April 2002, and 12,000 miles and six months later it was written off in a crash.

It had been faultless and averaged 55 mpg.  It was nowhere near as advanced as your 2012 Gen 3 Prius, or my current Gen 4, but 16 years ago it was a revelation.

I was gutted while sitting in the wreckage (fortunately uninjured) and had been so blown away by the smooth, quiet ride, I decided even had it not been so economical I wanted another.  Before the crane arrived to lift my vehicle off the place it had landed I was on the phone to my dealer and had agreed a deal for another one.

16 years and over 300,000 Prius miles later, I can't think of any car at any price that would persuade me to swap.

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My wife sold her Kia a few months ago and got a Yaris hybrid, on the strength on my prius, it's a great drivetrain.

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13 months ago I bought a 2010 Auris Hybrid and grew in love with it. But I really wanted a Prius, so early Feb this year I bought privately a gen3 2010 Prius, the wife now has the Auris Hybrid.  Just had a weeks holiday in Essex in the Prius. Before the hols I was doing a recoded 66,2mpg, came back and it was showing 65.9mpg. Was a lovely ride, and I figure it was happier, mpg wise, doing 60-65mph then it was doing 45-50mph. Lovely car.

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The Gen 4 must be about as good as it can get for 21C transport.

We had a meeting just the other side of Birmingham, and despite the car park situation of the North Circular, and the heavy load on the M40, with the radar cruise set to 65, the car returned 77mpg over the 120 miles on the way up, and  ridiculous 81mpg on the way home.

Radar cruise seems to do better than I can with careful right foot, despite me flicking my right foot off the throttle to bring in EV mode on flat or downhill sections

And on flat section of road, the mpg does not seem to vary whether the cruise is set at 65 or 70 mph

all this on 17” wheels, so who needs to look sadly at a set of buttons when such economy is available with proper sized rubber

 

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2 hours ago, barrycoll said:

Radar cruise seems to do better than I can with careful right foot...

First thing I noticed when I got my Gen 4 Prius is that the Cruise Control respects the drive mode setting (ECO/Normal/PWR).

I use resume a lot and in ECO it takes quite a leisurely climb from sub 30 to 60 or 70.  Flicking it into Normal produces noticeably more urgency, and PWR gives quite rapid acceleration.

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Even in ECO, Pete, it seems to add more oomph than I would be tempered to use, although even when the powerband is in EV range, that does not seem to always kick in with Cruise...

I have a feeling that the car was ridiculously economical, was that the Battery had been on the CTEK for 3 days, which seems to have sorted the alarm problem, as well as allowed for virtually no fuel being used

its shocking that post April 2017 Prius have to pay £140 for anti pollution  road tax

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18 minutes ago, barrycoll said:

Even in ECO, Pete, it seems to add more oomph than I would be tempered to use,...

its shocking that post April 2017 Prius have to pay £140 for anti pollution  road tax

Hmmm, maybe they've changed the calibration since my very early model.  I only use ECO to accelerate if people are behind me when on a dual carriageway and I'm not causing bunching, as virtually everything passes me while I'm accelerating (away from a roundabout, for example) - even some very low powered cars.

I think governments of both parities have shown unbelievable levels of incompetence with things like VED, plastic bags, pollution control (look how many court cases they've lost!) for more than 15 years.

Government (and other) scientists warned way back that the VED favouring diesels would cause more problems than they solved, but were ignored.  Many bought the cars influenced by lower VED, which only saved the the equivalent of one or two tankfuls a year, if that.  A few friends who bought them when the were wholly unsuitable for their low annual mileage and generally short journeys were shocked when I did some sums and showed:

  1. they got worse mpg (and therefore probably emissions) than their petrol equivalents
  2. the diesel versions were about £1,000 dearer to buy than the petrol equivalent (at that time)
  3. servicing was more expensive
  4. resale values were lower (and that was before the current backlash!).

For two of them, I reckoned they were £1-1½ thousand pounds a year worse off taking all that into account even with the slightly cheaper VED!

Also, one of the carers looking after my Mum a few years ago bought an Astra diesel and found her Battery went flat every 3-5 days.  She did lots of ¼-½ mile journeys each day with just enough time in between for the engine to get nearly cold.  Diesels generally need more electricity to start because of their higher compression and sturdier (heavier) components and therefore need more driving time to put the charge back.  She ended up getting her husband to charge her Battery twice a week!

VED rules from April last year make me think the whole government barely has any brain cells between them!  Whilst I agree EVs should be encouraged, vast proportions of the population simply cannot use them at the moment because they have no off-road parking where they could charge at home, and insufficient charging points elsewhere to make up for it.

Surely, it should be a no-brainer to give some incentive for the next cleanest bands of cars, but obviously not.  An extreme example is the BMW i3 REX (Ranged Extended) which attracts the same tax as the dirtiest petrol diesel car currently available, even though it's almost a 100% EV, but with a device to get you out of trouble in an emergency.  If anything, this is ideal for people for whom range anxiety would otherwise prevent them from buying EVs.

For many, PHEVs are a brilliant solution, allowing all or nearly all EV only driving for most daily commutes, but give the ability to make long road trips with no inconvenience.  Again, after 1st year taxed like any other petrol/diesel.

Before buying my latest Prius, I even shortlisted a Tesla Model S with over 300 mile claimed range.  I ruled it out for a few reasons, but a significant one was even that range and lack of charging stations on the East of England would have made some of my less frequent journeys nightmarish, and in the absence of Tesla's very fast Supercharger stations, take an awful long time to charge up.  I worked out that on a trip from the Norfolk/Suffolk border to Hull and back, if I could only use a domestic socket, I'd need a 30+ hour charge - a pain on a day trip!  And it gets £310 VED because of its price.  The charge point situation has improved a little since then, but not enough.

 

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It’s not the £140 VED p.a (or 2/3 tankful) that grates, dear Pete, but the principle of thing.....70 grms of CO2 ( for you) and 76 for me,

is amazing, as even my tiny 3 cylinder IQ pumps out 110.. Of course the BMW I3 RX is the very worst example of un-thinking

there we are, with the help of Mr T.,  saving the world, and we have to pay through the nose for the warm glow (smug??) that a readout of 70+ mpg suggests.

......do you think that anybody in HM Govt reads this forum?????

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Frankly, I wonder if anyone in HM Govt can even read!

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I don't see any government ministers driving round in EVs, plenty in big gas guzzling Jags at tax payers expense.

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